


Derelict

by pigeonking



Category: Doctor Who
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-16
Updated: 2017-03-16
Packaged: 2018-10-06 03:43:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10324853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pigeonking/pseuds/pigeonking
Summary: This story features the debut of an original character of mine that has become quite popular with certain members of my Doctor Who fan fiction group on Facebook. His name is Squirrel and since this story he has gone on to appear in two other Who stories of mine and will more than likely surface again at some point.The villains of this story will remain a mystery as intended. Comment below if you guess who they are before the big reveal... :)





	

“Do you know what I like about travelling around the universe, guided by the Randomiser, Romana?” the Doctor asked his fellow Time Lord as he flung various items over his shoulder from the chest he was searching through.

Romana was standing, bored, slightly to the left of the Doctor and way out of the line of fire so that none of the carelessly discarded tat would hit her.

“I don’t know, Doctor, but I’m sure you’re about to tell me.” She sighed. Romana was looking rather fetching in a pink parody of the Doctor’s own outfit; a long pink coat and trousers tucked into knee high brown leather boots, finished off by a ridiculously long pink scarf coiled about her slender neck and a straw hat perched on the back of her pretty blonde head.

The Doctor had to pull down his own scarf from in front of his face, from where it had ridden up, before he could reply to Romana.

“It’s the excitement of not knowing where we’ll end up next! Don’t you think that’s exciting? Ah-hah!” he grabbed a hold of something inside the chest and pulled it out, “I knew it was in here somewhere!”

“So far it’s taken us to Skaro, the home planet of the deadliest species in the universe; we’ve landed on a planet where the only thing that was more dangerous than the local plant life was its queen and we’ve caused two spaceships to merge with each other when coming out of hyperspace. The only respite we’ve had was that trip to Paris in the 1970s and even that was a busman’s holiday at best. If I didn’t know better I’d swear that your TARDIS was trying to kill us!” Romana remarked wryly.

“Ah, but it has been exciting, hasn’t it!” the Doctor assured her with one of his mighty grins as he stood up and handed her his prize from the chest.

Romana looked down at the battered green and yellow box in her hands and read the bold black lettering upon its lid.

“Scrabble?” she frowned, “Why in the name of Rassilon were you looking for this?”

“That’s the trouble with travelling to lots of exciting places. The bit in between can get a trifle dull sometimes and I’m getting rather fed up of K9 beating me at chess!” the Doctor explained.

“Oh it’s a game!” Romana realised, “How do you play?”

“Would you care to explain K9?” the Doctor asked.

A small dark green metal dog glided up to them from where it had been sitting in the corner of the TARDIS control room, wagging its tail-like antennae.

“Scrabble: to scratch or scrape, as with claws or hands.” K9 began to explain in his high pitched electronic voice.

“The game, K9, the game!” the Doctor reminded him.

“Apologies, Master. Scrabble: a game combining anagrams and crosswords in which two to four players use counters of various point values to form words on a playing board.” K9 told them.

“There, you see? Scrabble!” the Doctor beamed.

“Can we use Gallifreyan words?” Romana asked with her own dazzling smile.

“Certainly not!” the Doctor replied crossly, “For starters I don’t think we’d have enough letters.”

“Master, the console!” K9 interrupted, “I believe we have arrived.”

The Doctor and Romana looked towards the six-sided console and sure enough the central column, that usually rose and fell whilst the TARDIS was in flight, had indeed come to a stop.

With an excited grin the Doctor batted the box of Scrabble from Romana’s hands. The box exploded open upon hitting the floor, sending little beige lettered tiles spilling in all directions like some bizarre volcanic eruption.

“Who needs Scrabble, eh?” the Doctor remarked as he crossed to the console and switched on the scanner.

The picture on the screen showed a long, poorly lit metallic corridor stretching out as far as they could see.

The Doctor cocked his head to one side as he looked at the scanner and scratched his chin thoughtfully.

“Could be a spaceship, I suppose.” He surmised.

“Or a space station.” Romana opined.

“Yes, yes.” The Doctor agreed absently, “Looks like someone forgot to pay the electricity bill.”

He switched off the scanner and took his hat out of his coat pocket to perch it upon his head of dark curls.

“Let’s go out and have a look, shall we?” he grinned, operating the door controls.

The white doors swung open and the Doctor strode outside, closely followed by Romana and K9.

 

The time travelling trio emerged from the blue police box shell of the TARDIS into the corridor that they had seen on the scanner.  It wasn’t so dark that they could not see, but there certainly wasn’t as much light as you would expect on your average spaceship, if indeed they were on a spaceship.

The Doctor pulled the TARDIS door closed and looked up and down the corridor. He pointed his finger to the right.

“That way!” he declared.

And so off they went.

“Let’s see if we can find a window or something else that might tell us where we are.” The Doctor decided out loud as they made their way down the long corridor.

Very soon they came to an open hatchway that ordinarily would have separated one part of the corridor from the other; a sort of blast door in case of emergencies, the Doctor mused. This one was open. There was an electronic keypad set into the right side of the hatchway at around eye level for an average human being. The Doctor noted that the numbers on the keys were of Earth origin. So this, whatever it was, was of human manufacture.

“Presumably this keypad enables one to open and close the hatchway using a security code.” The Doctor stated.

“Well, obviously!” Romana tutted, rolling her eyes.

“Alright, alright! No need to get tetchy!” the Doctor replied.

They passed through the hatch and continued down the corridor until they came to a T-junction.

Down the left hand junction they saw an oval portal so they went that way in order to look through it.

“Well that settles it. We’re definitely on a spaceship or station of some sort.” The Doctor remarked as they looked out onto the star speckled blackness that greeted them on the other side of the plexi-glass portal.

“What’s that over there?” Romana wondered.

She was pointing at a brighter looking red star that seemed to be approaching their position off from the right.

The Doctor and Romana tracked the progress of the ‘red star’ as it drew closer until they were able to make out the shape of some kind of small space faring vessel.

“It looks like it wants to dock with us.” The Doctor observed.

“From its trajectory I’d say that the docking bay must be down that corridor somewhere.” Romana indicated the right hand junction.

The Doctor flashed his toothy smile.

“Shall we go and say hello?”

Romana frowned. “What if they’re hostile?”

“Oh don’t worry. K9 will look after us, won’t you, K9?” the Doctor was already striding off down the right junction.

K9 was hot on his heels; “Affirmative, Master!”

Romana rolled her eyes again and set off in pursuit.

As they ran down the corridors to get to the docking bay the three time travellers passed through several other open hatchways along the way. When they reached the docking area, the hatch that led into that was closed. The Doctor and Romana peered through the viewing window to watch as the small red ship touched down in the bay. The open cargo doors displayed the starry expanse from which they had just come.

“With that door open behind them and the power down on this ship, whoever is on that ship will have to come out wearing spacesuits.” The Doctor observed.

“You’re assuming that they breathe air.” Romana pointed out, “On the other hand, if there’s enough power to run life support in here, maybe there’s something that we could do from this point to override the system and close the cargo doors?”

“Good thinking, Romana. I knew you were useful for something.” The Doctor teased, “K9, see if you can hack into this control panel and work some of your magic.”

K9 dutifully extended the antennae out of the top of his head and inserted it into a port conveniently situated on the control panel near the hatchway.

“There is nothing magic about what I do, Master.” K9 insisted.

K9 whirred busily for a few moments and then sure enough, as if by magic, the cargo doors slid effortlessly shut behind the space ship.

“Life support in the docking area should be sufficient for oxygen breathing life forms now, Master.” K9 reported.

“Good boy, K9!” the Doctor patted the dog on his metallic head.

“Caution, Master. While I was in the system I detected the presence of non-human technology.” K9 informed him.

“Were you able to identify it, K9?” Romana asked.

“Negative, Mistress.” K9 replied.

“One problem at a time, eh, K9. Let’s see if our new friends are friendly first shall we?” the Doctor took out his sonic screwdriver and used it to open the hatchway into the docking bay.

They entered just as the occupants of the ship were coming out.

A hatchway had opened at the front of the ship and a ramp had extended to the ground. Six people and what appeared to be a robotic parrot emerged from the hatch and descended the ramp.

The group consisted of five men and one woman. One of the men in particular towered over the rest of the group, a mountain of muscle, but that wasn’t the most startling thing about him. This man resembled a giant humanoid, body building red squirrel. Every inch of his body that was not covered by his gun-metal grey space tunic was swathed in chestnut red fur. His nose was rodent-like and his ears were pointy and tufted. He even had a large bushy tail sticking up from behind him. His ensemble was made all the more bizarre by the huge space blaster rifle that he cradled in his muscular arms and by the liquorice black cigar that protruded from his whiskered mouth.

The rest of the group were all wearing the same grey tunics but with their own personal little accessories. Foremost was a diminutive dark haired individual who carried himself with a Napoleonic sense of authority. He also sported a theatrically twisted black moustache and carried a simple, but no less effective, hand blaster. The Doctor guessed that he was their captain. This deduction was reinforced when the scarlet and silver painted robo-parrot alighted upon his left shoulder.

The captain was quite literally dwarfed by the tall lanky, sandy haired weasel faced (but not an actual weasel face) man that sauntered along beside him toting a mini-blaster in each hand. He also had a bandolier of futuristic grenades draped across one shoulder.

Then there was the short bald bespectacled man who wore a white doctor’s coat over his grey tunic. He carried no weapons, but did have a white carry case emblazoned with a red cross; an ensemble that absolutely screamed ship’s medic.

Next was a cheerful looking black man with shoulder length braided black hair. He wore a white T-shirt over his tunic that sported the black, yellow and green colours of the New Jamaica colonies. This man also carried no weapons.

Finally there was the one and only woman. A petite girl in her mid-twenties with long black hair tied into a pony tail. She only wore the trouser part of the tunic and above the waist she sported a white sleeveless V-necked T-shirt that showed off a little of her bronzed midriff. She was walking alongside the squirrel man, but walked to his right so as not to be in a position where she could inhale his second hand smoke. Like the squirrel man she was hefting a massive blaster rifle which seemed to dwarf her petite stature.

The Doctor, Romana and K9 stood at the bottom of the ramp to greet them. In the case of the two Time Lords they stood open handed, hands by their sides to show that they carried no weapons, while K9 left his nose blaster concealed within its housing.

“Hello there! Delighted to meet you all! I’m the Doctor, this is my good friend, Romana and this here is K9.” The Doctor introduced them all with his usual cheerful aplomb.

“Are you the ones who closed the cargo bay doors and transferred life support to this section?” the captain asked gruffly.

“That was K9.” The Doctor replied, “But, yes, that was us.”

“T’anks, man! I don’t much like putting a space suit on at the best a times.” The New Jamaican beamed. He at least seemed more inclined to be friendly.

“When we first scanned for life forms on this derelict we came up with nothing.” The squirrel man grumbled with a voice that seemed to resonate from deep within his barrelled chest. “Then you guys suddenly appeared as if from nowhere.”

“Yeah, how’d you do that?” the woman asked, “Were you shielded somehow?”

“We’ve only just arrived ourselves in a ship of our own that operates on a different principle to yours. It has the capability of materialising within a vessel and bypassing the need for a docking bay completely.” The Doctor explained, his grin never leaving his face.

“Don’t think I’ve ever encountered no ship like that before.” The woman replied.

“No reason you should have, my dear.” The Doctor remarked.

“I suppose that you think that you’re entitled to a share of the salvage seeing as you got here before us?” the captain declared menacingly.

“Oh, not at all. My friends and I are just explorers and have no interest in salvaging anything from this ship whatsoever. If there’s anything here to be had then you’re all more than welcome to it.” The Doctor assured him.

The captain eyed the Doctor suspiciously, but could see no indication that the tall oddly dressed man was trying to con him. Eventually he nodded and this seemed to be a signal as everyone behind him who was armed promptly put away whatever weapon that they were carrying.

“Marvellous!” the Doctor declared, “Now that we’ve all decided that we can be friends, perhaps you’d all like to introduce yourselves?”

“I’m Captain Dorax,” the diminutive man told them before indicating those behind him, “this is my first mate, Mayter; he’s a bit soft in the head, but loyal to a fault, aren’t you Mayter?”

“That I am, Captain!” Mayter chirped in, his pale complexion turning a deep scarlet.

“This here is, Quack, the ship’s Medic…” Dorax continued.

“You don’t say.” Romana remarked with a barely concealed smile.

“Our New Jamaican friend is Wochek, the ship’s pilot; this here is Tammy, she’s our engineer what keeps our ship flying and this here…” he hooked his thumb at the giant squirrel man. “…is Squirrel.”

“How aptly named.” The Doctor observed with his usual grin.

“And last, but by no means least we have my good chum Cocker-2, a state of the art XVII-Class robo-parrot!” Dorax finally finished.

“Pleased to meet ya!” Cocker-2 chirruped in a high pitched, sing song mechanical voice.

K9 whirred restlessly.

“Recommend extreme caution, Master. Robotic parrots are not to be trusted.”

“Down, K9! Be nice!” the Doctor chided reproachfully, “Please forgive my friend. He had a rather nasty experience with another robot parrot a while back which I don’t think he’s quite gotten over yet, have you, K9?”

“I will behave if he behaves, Master.” K9 intoned matter-of-factly.

“Cocker won’t give you any trouble unless you start it.” Dorax assured them with something that closely resembled a friendly smile.

“Well I’m glad to hear it. I must say that you must be the nicest bunch of space pirates I’ve ever had the good fortune to meet!” the Doctor declared.

“We aint pirates!” Squirrel growled as if he found the term offensive.

“We never attack other ships; we only ever salvage drifting derelicts such as this one.” Dorax explained.

“Then why are you so heavily armed?” Romana wondered, not unreasonably.

“The universe is a very unfriendly place. We’d just detected life signs where previously there hadn’t been any. We didn’t know what we would find.” Dorax told her.

“If you are just explorers then why does your dog have an inbuilt laser cannon?” Cocker-2 piped up.

K9 whirred again as if he was itching to use said laser.

“Well, like Captain Dorax says, the universe is a very unfriendly place.” The Doctor replied.

“So how do you know if there is anything worth salvaging on this ship?” Romana asked.

“Our sensors detected a yield of unidentified cargo in this ship’s hold. We don’t know what it is, but it’s worth taking a look in case it’s anything that we could sell.” Tammy explained.

“If the cargo is being held somewhere other than in this docking bay then the crew must have had a means of getting it onto and off the ship without having to cart it from one deck of the ship to the other.” The Doctor mused as he looked around the docking bay. His gaze alighted upon a raised platform over in the left corner of the bay that had a control panel in front of it. “Such as this transmat relay over here!”

“Nicely spotted, Doctor!” Dorax approved, “Think you can get it up and running, Tammy? If you can then we can transmat ourselves directly into the hold without having to trek down into the bowels of the ship.”

“Piece of cake, Captain.” Tammy assured him and she stepped up to the control panel to set to work.

The Doctor obligingly stepped aside. He was sure that he too could get the transmat working, but he didn’t want to tread on anyone’s toes unnecessarily.

As Tammy worked everyone else stood about patiently waiting.

Romana found herself standing beside the furry mountain that was Squirrel.

“Forgive me for staring,” she said to him apologetically, “but I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure of encountering one of your species before. What planet are you from?”

“What planet am I from?” Squirrel laughed a hearty booming laugh, “You think that because I look like this that I am an alien?”

“You’re not?” Romana remarked quizzically.

“I’m as human as you are, darling.” Squirrel assured her, his rodent features twitching into a smile.

Romana decided not to correct him on his assumption to her own humanity.

“Then how do you explain…?” Romana waved her hand to indicate his appearance as tactfully as she could.

“I take it that you’re unfamiliar with the work of Doctor Gustav Moreau? He pioneered human/animal gene enhancement therapy way back in 2789. It enabled normal Joes like me to undertake an operation that allowed us to take on the physical attributes of any animal of our choosing. I’ve always been rather fond of squirrels, so…” he allowed his explanation to trail off at that.

“I see.” Romana replied.

“We’re always telling Quack he should take the surgery to make himself look like a duck seeing as how he’s practically half way there already!” Mayter chuckled.

“Har-dee-har-dee-har!” Quack grumbled good naturedly.

“That’s it, I’m about done!” Tammy declared and sure enough a low harmonic humming was now emanating from the transmat’s receiver pad.

“Good work, Tammy. Someone is going to have to stay here to operate the transmat from this end. Any volunteers?” Dorax asked.

“There’s no reason we can’t all go.” The Doctor argued amicably, “After all, there’s bound to be a transmat receiver just like this one in the cargo hold that we can use to get back here.”

“Alright.” Dorax agreed. “Send us through, Tammy then use the time delay to send yourself through after.”

“Aye, Captain.” Tammy replied.

Everyone crowded onto the receiver pad which thankfully had been designed to hold a number of cargo crates, therefore, seven humanoids, a robot parrot and a robot dog were not too much for it.

Tammy touched the control panel in front of her and with an electronic hum everyone on the pad faded away.

 

An instant later they all appeared again on the corresponding transmat pad in the cargo hold. They all stepped off and Squirrel turned round and waited anxiously. The big man did not relax until he saw Tammy appear on the empty pad and step down to join them.

“Were you worried about me, Tufty-Ears?” Tammy drawled, standing on tip-toes to kiss the squirrel-man on his nose.

“I’m always worried about you, baby girl.” Squirrel replied tenderly.

The other space pirates ignored this tender display of affection as if it were something they’d all gotten used to a long time ago.

Captain Dorax had other reasons to be otherwise engaged as he looked out onto the vast open space of the cargo hold.

“This doesn’t make any sense!” he exclaimed angrily, “There’s nothing here!”

Indeed, the entire hold was empty but for one small little square box with a red flashing light set into the top of it.

Whilst everyone else stared dumbfounded at the empty space that greeted them the Doctor walked over to this strange little box to examine it.

“Interesting.” He declared out loud, “This device has been set to transmit a false reading to anyone who scans this ship that will tell your sensors that this hold is packed to the rafters with precious cargo, but it’s all an illusion. There’s nothing really here at all!”

“But why would someone do that?” Mayter wondered.

The Doctor stood up straight and turned to the group, his face serious.

“There’s only one reason I can think of.” He replied gravely. “This is a trap. We need to get off this ship as quickly as we can before it’s too late. Assuming that it isn’t already.”

“A trap set by whom? There’s no one else on this ship, but us!” Dorax pointed out.

“So we’ve been led to believe, but what if there is someone or something else on board? Someone that is shielded from sensors in the same way that you thought we were. Or perhaps they have another ship nearby within transmat range?” the Doctor surmised.

“We would have detected another ship in the area!” Tammy protested.

“Not unless it was shielded too.” Romana pointed out.

“How do we know that you didn’t set this trap?” Quack wondered.

“If we had, why would we bring it to your attention now? Why wouldn’t we just spring the trap while you’re still caught unawares?” the Doctor observed.

“Wait a minute, everyone!” Squirrel interrupted before any more accusations could be made. “Can anyone else hear that?” The big man’s head was cocked to one side as he listened intently.

“Hear what?” Dorax asked.

“Shhh! Listen!” Squirrel whispered harshly and everyone went silent.

Then they all heard it, a metallic scratching within the walls and ceiling of the ship, all around them, getting closer and closer.

“There’s something in the ventilation shafts!” Mayter exclaimed.

“What is it?” Quack wondered; sweat pouring off his bald head.

“I don’t know.” The Doctor replied, “But I’m guessing that we probably don’t want to be here to find out. Everyone onto the transmat pad now!”

No one needed to be told twice and soon enough they were all piled onto the pad. The Doctor crossed to the control panel and operated the transmat sequence.

That was when the control panel exploded.

The Doctor yelped as sparks singed his eyebrows and he backed away from the smoking and now inoperable panel.

“What happened?” Tammy asked.

“Something blew out the control panel remotely… and I don’t think it was an accident.” The Doctor declared.

“Looks like we’re going to have to take the long way back to the docking bay, then.” Dorax declared grimly.

They all scrambled off the pad and quickly located the only other way out of the hold… a closed hatchway.

“Think you can open it, K9?” the Doctor asked.

“Affirmative, Master!” and with those words the little dog set to work.

As they waited for K9 to once again work his magic, everyone was on the alert for the first wave of whatever to come pouring out of the vent openings. There were four walls in the hold and a rectangular vent opening set into each wall. The metallic scrabbling was getting ever closer.

Those who had weapons kept them trained on the openings, ready to blast whatever emerged. Even Cocker-2’s artificial eyes were glowing with some pent up energy.

There was one smaller vent that had gone unnoticed by everyone, including Quack who happened to be standing right next to it, his right hand resting dangerously close to it…

The hatchway slid open as K9 successfully completed his hack into the ship’s system.

“Well done, K9!” Romana cheered, resisting the urge to kneel down and hug the dog.

“AAAARRRGGGHHHH!!!!!!!” Quack’s scream of pain cut through their fleeting moment of triumph.

“Something bit me!” he squealed in agony, but nevertheless he joined everyone as they ran through the open hatchway into the corridor beyond.

K9 quickly inserted his antennae into the data port on that side of the door and used his interfacing ability to seal off the hatchway behind them… just as their mysterious assailants were getting ready to pour forth from the vents in the hold.

The Doctor glanced around their immediate surroundings. From left to right the corridor stretched out for as far as the eye could see, curving inwards at both ends until they tapered away into who knows where, but for the moment there were no hatchways blocking their retreat. And something else…

“There are no ventilation openings in this immediate area so we should be safe for the moment while we decide what to do next.” The Doctor declared.

Quack was clutching his injured arm, whimpering with the pain.

“Let me take a look at that.” The Doctor requested as he stepped forward and gently took hold of the medic’s stricken appendage.

There were two hideous lacerations on the back of his hand as if something very sharp had pierced the skin and worse still there appeared to be something moving about like a swarm of insects crawling beneath his skin, inexorably making its way up his arm.

“K9, scan this for me, would you? Tell me what you make of it!” the Doctor asked.

K9 glided forward and obliged his master.

“Doctor Quack appears to have been afflicted with a synthetic nano-virus that appears to be transforming every cell in his body from the inside out. If the virus is allowed to continue to spread unchecked then in a very little time Doctor Quack will cease to be recognisable as a living human organism. Recommend removal of Doctor Quack’s arm to halt spread of the virus.” K9 informed them.

Quack yanked his arm away from the Doctor’s grasp.

“No way am I letting you take my arm! No way!” he roared angry despite the obvious pain and discomfort he was enduring.

“I’m afraid K9’s diagnosis is irrefutable. There is no other way we can save you.” The Doctor reasoned.

“Come on, Doc! What’s the big deal? You know they can work magic with those artificial limbs these days. We fix you up with one of them you’ll never know you lost it!” Dorax soothed reassuringly.

Tammy rubbed her right arm self-consciously as she listened to the captain’s words.

Squirrel took out a small black tube from a pouch on his tunic. He flicked a switch and a thin red beam of light sprouted from the end of the tube.

“I’ll do it with this, Doc. The laser-blade will cauterize the wound so you won’t even lose any blood.” The squirrel man assured him.

“Keep away from me! No one is touching my arm!” Quack pushed past them all and ran off down the left hand corridor.

“We must go after him!” the Doctor urged.

“Wait, Master. There is something more that I must tell you.” K9 piped up solemnly.

The Doctor knelt down beside his robotic friend.

“What is it, K9?” he asked.

“While I was in the system opening the hatchway to enable our escape, the alien technology that I spoke of downloaded a techno-virus into my systems. I am fighting it now. The Gallifreyan technology with which you built me is superior and I am confident that I can beat it, but I will need to shut down momentarily while I purge the virus from my systems. Permission to do so, Master!” K9 explained.

“Do what you must, K9. You’re a good dog!” the Doctor replied, stroking the dog’s nose affectionately.

K9’s head and tail drooped as he went into shut-down to combat the virus within him.

“Cocker-2, may I ask you to stay here and watch over K9? We must catch up with Quack before it’s too late!” the Doctor said as he rose to his feet.

“I will watch over him!” Cocker -2 agreed. The parrot flitted over and alighted upon the dormant K9’s back.

The Doctor led everyone else off in pursuit of the terrified Doctor Quack.

 

As they ran down the corridor they found the already dim lighting was getting darker and darker the further they progressed as if some malevolent force was purposefully affecting it. From what K9 had told them it probably was, the Doctor mused.

They finally came upon Doctor Quack cowering in the shadows, unable to retreat any further due to the closed hatchway that blocked his path. The shadows concealed the medic’s features, but they could see that he was trembling as if he were suffering through some intense internal conflict.

The Doctor gestured for everyone else to stay behind him as he moved cautiously forward.

“Doctor Quack? It’s alright; we only want to help you. I understand that you’re afraid. Believe me if there were any other way to save you I’d be the first to advocate it. But there is no other way.” The Doctor spoke low and soothing as if he were coaxing a frightened animal. “If it isn’t already too late, we must remove the infected arm!”

“It is too late!” Quack’s voice replied, though it sounded different, as if it were being filtered through an electronic speaker. “There is no more Quack!”

Slowly the cowering figure stood up straight and turned to face the Doctor, striding forth from the shadows.

Though it still wore the medic’s clothing, the figure beneath no longer resembled Quack in any recognisable way. His organic matter had been completely replaced with a shining, silver metallic exo-skeleton. His fingers were curved into steel talons, but it was his head and face that had undergone the most radical transformation. Quack’s eyes had been replaced by round sightless holes, his nose was gone and his mouth had become a harsh slit. Where his ears should have been there now protruded handle-like antennae that sprouted from either side of his head and grew upwards to meet somewhere at the top.

“I am Cyberman!” the figure declared in a voice that was now completely devoid of anything that had been Quack; devoid of any kind of emotion at all.

The Cyberman strode forward with its hands outstretched menacingly.

Worse still, there were two vent openings either side of the closed hatchway. Something that resembled a shiny foot long silverfish slithered out of the right hand opening, antennae twitching, bulbous red eyes glowing and mandibles snapping. It was followed by a literal torrent of similar creatures pouring from first that vent and then the other and they were all swarming in the wake of the Cyberman, towards the Doctor and the others.

“Cybermats!” the Doctor cried out in horror. “Run!”

And run they did.

As they made their way back down the corridor Tammy and Squirrel covered their retreat by pouring a barrage of blaster fire into the encroaching swarm of Cybermats. Their little metallic bodies blasted apart easily enough, however, for every one that was destroyed another three seemed to take its place. All the while the Cyberman in their midst strode purposefully forwards, unimpeded by the smaller creatures surrounding it, as if he were wading through a stream of living water.

Tammy switched her target and aimed her rifle at the Cyberman instead. All three of the shots she fired connected. One hit the Cyberman’s left shoulder, another hit him square in the chest and the final shot landed right between his blank staring eyes. Not one of them had a single effect. The Cyberman kept coming as if it had never been hit at all!

Tammy stopped shooting at the Cyberman and returned her attention to the Cybermats.

“I wouldn’t bother if I were you.” The Doctor remarked as they ran. “There are far too many of them for you to make any dent in their numbers. However…”

The Doctor turned his attention to Mayter.

“I don’t suppose you have any EMP grenades on that bandolier of yours?” he asked.

“Three of ‘em as it happens.” Mayter replied with a grim smile.

“Let me have one!” the Doctor demanded urgently.

Mayter dutifully handed the Doctor a small black and blue spherical object plucked from his bandolier.

The Doctor depressed the trigger mechanism on the top of the grenade and lobbed it into the midst of the Cyber-swarm.

Moments later there was a detonation of blinding blue electrical energy which enveloped a large number of the Cybermats and the Cyberman in their midst.

The stricken Cybermats coiled up like timid woodlice and lay still. The Cyberman shuddered violently as the electromagnetic pulse pulverised its cybernetic nervous system. It emitted a cry of what could only be described as agony as it crashed lifeless to the floor like a felled oak tree.

Those Cybermats not affected swarmed over their fallen comrades and kept on coming.

And so the Doctor and the others kept on running and they didn’t stop until they were back where they had left K9 and Cocker-2.

K9 was up and running again when they arrived.

“All traces of the alien virus have been eliminated from my system, Master.” The little dog announced cheerfully.

“Wonderful, K9, wonderful!” the Doctor replied, genuinely pleased.

“Additional information. Whilst purging the virus I was able to identify the origin.” K9 declared.

“I’m afraid we’re way ahead of you on that one, K9. It’s the Cybermen!” the Doctor replied.

“Touching as this reunion is, shouldn’t we be looking for a way out of here?” Captain Dorax urged.

The Cybermats were closing in.

“Quite right.” The Doctor agreed, “Come along! We can talk as we run.”

Tammy and Squirrel provided covering fire as the group retreated.

One Cybermat detached itself from the swarm and launched into the air, pouncing and fixing its mandibles into the back of Dorax’s neck as he was turning to run.

The Captain screamed as if two red hot pokers had been jammed into his spine.

“Noooooooo!!!!!” Mayter shrieked as his beloved captain writhed horribly, reaching behind him to try and detach the Cybermat.

Mayter pulled out his twin mini-blasters and began firing into the swarm of Cybermats, screaming with hatred and anger as he blasted each metal body apart.

While the rest of the group had managed to retreat further down the corridor, Mayter had stood by his captain, who was already beginning to turn into a Cyberman, the offending Cybermat having long since detached from the back of his neck.

As Mayter continued to pour laser fire into the swarm the Cybermats surged over him and completely overwhelmed the first mate. Hundreds of tiny mandibles sank into his flesh and injected him with the Cyber nano-virus.

Mayter screamed long and loud, still firing and then as the nano-virus entered his mind the firing stopped and so did the screaming. Mayter was no more and when the Cybermats fell away from the first mate, where once had stood a man there now stood a Cyberman.

Two new Cybermen now stood among the swarm. The one wearing Mayter’s uniform sported black handles at the side of its head.

“This form has been designated leader.” The Cyber-Mayter declared in its electronic monotone.

“Let’s get out of here!” the Doctor urged. “Just run! Don’t look back, any of you!”

Nobody needed telling twice.

K9 and Cocker-2 took it upon themselves to provide the covering fire. While K9 fired his nose laser into the Cybermats, Cocker-2 discharged powerful bursts of destructive energy from his eyes.

Ultimately the group’s retreat was halted by another closed hatchway.

“That’s it! We’re trapped!” Wochek exclaimed.

K9 came gliding up through the group.

“Stand aside. I believe I may be of some assistance.” He declared.

“You can’t risk it, K9. The Cybermen may attack you with their virus again.” Romana protested.

“Do not worry, Mistress. While I was combatting the Cyber-virus earlier I was able to format a virus of my own which will purge all traces of Cyber-technology from this ship’s systems.” K9 assured her as he plugged himself into the port.

“Excellent, K9!” the Doctor exclaimed in delight, “Well what are you waiting for? Get on with it!”

K9 ignored his master and set to work.

Meanwhile, the two Cybermen and their Cybermat entourage continued their advance along the corridor. They were in no hurry, confident of victory as they were. Total subjugation and alteration of the humanoids was the only logical outcome of this scenario.

As the first Cybermats rounded the corner Tammy and Squirrel started up their barrage of suppressing fire. This time Cocker-2 added his own fire power into the mix.

“Sooner or later the Cybermen are gonna run out of these things, right?” Squirrel hoped as the swarm surged nearer, undeterred by their dwindling numbers.

“Oh undoubtedly.” The Doctor agreed. “But the chances are that we’ll all be Cybermen long before that happens.”

“You’re a cheerful guy to have around, Doc!” Squirrel replied drily.

“Thank you, have a jelly baby!” the Doctor beamed, rustling a crumpled white paper bag under the squirrel-man’s nose. He did not take offence when the gentle giant didn’t take one. The Doctor selected an orange jelly baby, popped it into his mouth and returned the bag to his pocket.

“Success!” K9 announced.

The hatchway slid open. K9 detached himself from the port and everyone ran through.

Tammy, Squirrel and Cocker-2 kept up their suppressing fire as the others retreated before they too followed on through.

It was as Tammy was running through that one of the Cybermats pounced upon her, landing on her right arm and biting with its mandibles. Tammy didn’t even scream, she just grabbed the Cybermat off her arm and dropped it on the floor, crushing it beneath her heavy combat boots. She was about to continue running when she felt a powerful grip tighten on her shoulder. The Cyberleader had grabbed her and was preventing her from getting away.

“This humanoid is different from the others. We will take her for examination.” The Leader declared.

Squirrel had seen Tammy get taken.

“No!” he cried out in anguish, raising his blaster rifle, but he dared not fire for fear of hitting Tammy.

“While she’s still alive there’s still hope.” The Doctor assured him. “But if we are going to save her then we must survive… come on!”

With great reluctance and with a final look at his Tammy being dragged away by the two Cybermen, Squirrel turned and fled with the Doctor and the others.

The Cybermats continued their pursuit.

“I have taken the liberty of raising every hatchway in the ship, Master.” K9 announced as they ran through the corridors.

“Good work, K9. Did you succeed in purging the Cyber-technology from the ship?” the Doctor asked.

“Affirmative. Recommend that we find an operating transmat at the earliest opportunity that will be able to take us back to the pirate ship in the docking bay.” K9 replied.

“Good idea.” The Doctor said, “I don’t suppose you were able to locate one while you were locked into the ship’s system?”

“Follow me!” K9 said simply and sped ahead of the group.

With every hatch open and with everyone running the fugitives were easily able to outrun their pursuers. K9 soon led them into a little side room which sure enough contained an operable transmat system.

“There are at least three rooms such as this on each of the six decks. It would seem that instead of using lifts the former crew would travel from floor to floor using the transmats.” K9 explained.

“Remind me to track down the designer of this ship after this is over so I can shake him by the hand.” The Doctor declared.

Everyone stepped onto the receiver pad, after the Doctor had operated the controls with a time delay.

After a few seconds there was a harmonic buzzing hum and everyone disappeared.

 

And reappeared seconds later on the receiver pad in the docking bay. Wochek scrambled from the pad and sprinted gleefully over to his ship wrapping his arms around one of the landing legs in a tight embrace.

“Oh, my baby! I’ll never leave you again, fi sure!” he proclaimed happily. Then he detached himself from the embrace and ran onto the ship.  

“I’m not leaving here without Tammy.” Squirrel announced with grim determination.

“I’ll help you get her back, if I can.” The Doctor promised.

“What do you propose that we do?” Squirrel asked.

“First of all, we need to go back to my TARDIS.” The Doctor declared.

 

Tammy had been strapped to a gurney in what must have been the infirmary on this ship before the Cybermen had gotten hold of it and turned it into a trap for unwary space travellers. Since then the two Cybermen had scanned her and probed her with an array of medical devices, but they had not harmed her… yet.

“If you’re going to make me into one of you then get the hell on with it!” Tammy spat defiantly.

“You will become like us.” The Leader agreed.

“You are already partially cybernetic.” The other Cyberman that had once been her captain declared dispassionately.

“Tell me something I don’t know. I’ve worn this synthetic cyber-arm ever since I lost the real one in an engineering accident seven years ago. If you have any part of the captain still in that metal skull of yours you’d know that!” Tammy sneered.

“There is something else we must do before we can complete your cybernisation.” The Leader announced.

“Oh yeah? And what would that be?” Tammy wondered.

“We have detected a secondary life form developing within you. We must extract it so that it may be used.” The other Cyberman told her.

Tammy was speechless as the implications of the Cyberman’s words dawned on her.

“Looks like Squirrel’s gonna have to give up those cigars.” She said to herself.

There and then Tammy decided that she was not going to let the Cybermen take her unborn child.

Squirrel would be coming for her. She knew it deep in her soul. All she had to do was delay them somehow. And so Tammy began to thrash around on the gurney, screaming at the top of her lungs.

“I’m not going to let you take my baby!” she screamed over and over again.

The Cybermen were taken aback, unsure as to how to proceed.

While they were still deciding another new sound cut into the air, a strange hoarse grinding noise.

The Cybermen turned and saw a blue rectangular box slowly fade into existence right before their eyes.

“Eliminate the intruders!” the Leader intoned.

The other Cyberman lurched purposefully towards the TARDIS.

The door on the police box opened and Squirrel came dashing out wielding an unusual looking cannon.

The huge squirrel-man opened fire and a blue pulse of electromagnetic energy lanced out and enveloped the advancing Cyberman.

The stricken Cyberman screamed once before toppling sideways to the floor.

The Cyberleader raised its left hand with the intention of bringing it down and breaking Tammy’s neck.

Before the Leader could do so, Squirrel fired again and brought the Cyberman crashing to the ground.

Once he was certain that the two Cybermen were not about to get back up Squirrel tossed the EMP gun aside and rushed to free Tammy from her gurney.

“They didn’t hurt you did they?” he asked fearfully, “Because if they did I’m going to kill them all over again!”

Tammy silenced his fears with a kiss. When she came up for air she told Squirrel the happy news.

“I’m pregnant!”

 

Afterwards the Doctor dropped Squirrel and Tammy back off in the docking bay.

“Thank you, Doctor for helping me get my Tammy back. It is a debt that I shall never be able to repay.” Squirrel said as he shook the Doctor’s hand good bye.

“Think nothing of it. Seeing the two of you reunited safely is more than payment enough.” The Doctor grinned in reply.

“Of course you’ll have to give up those cigars now that we’re having a baby.” Tammy teased her furry lover, “And I think we might have to give our life style a rethink too.”

“Yes, no more salvaging from mysterious derelict space ships, I should say!” Romana agreed.

“Good bye, Cocker-2. For a robot parrot you are quite satisfactory.” K9 was saying to his avian counter-part.

“You aint so bad yerself, Rover!” Cocker-2 chirruped mischievously before flapping off back onto his ship.

He was soon joined by Squirrel and Tammy.

The Doctor, Romana and K9 watched their ship departing on the TARDIS scanner before they too took their leave of the derelict.

“Who’s for a game of Scrabble?” the Doctor’s voice could be heard as the TARDIS noisily faded away.

 

A short while after the departure of both ships, the derelict was torn apart in a series of explosions brought about by the self-destruct mechanism which K9 had activated prior to leaving.

The Cybermen would not be using that particular trap again.

 

**The End**


End file.
